throwing good money after bad

[MonsterTruck]

Hi,
I am a low poster on here. Mostly I ride, work or hang with the fam. I am impressed with the quality of replies that serious questions get on this site. I have a serious question. But first a little background.

I ride in SW CO. We ride long, steep, rocky, tight trails to high altitudes. I have been lucky enough to do this 1-2 times a week this summer. We have a solid crew. Mostly former AA racers, or very serious nonrace riders. It is a solid crew. I am the weak link, but not by much. I got my first moto a little over a year ago, and never looked back. I am super stoked to ride dirt bikes.

Anyhow, the story of my bike: it is a 2011 ec300. Bought from local dealer. I have been riding the bike 1-2 times a week 2-10 hrs per ride sine January.

Back in January, the powervalve exploded. I know this because the bike ran like s--t. That, and the large metal fragments in the tranny oil. So I took the bike to the dealer. He was busy, but ultimately split the crankcase, got out all the small metal bits. Reassembled the bike with a powervalve off a bike he had on the floor.

So, I got my bike back and it ran cleanly for a while. Progressively, esp at high rpms the bike has started to vibrate and rattle like nothing I have ever heard. I cannot explaine how bad these sounds are. Each sound comes on at different RPM, some make big thunking sounds while decelerating, others just rattle your feet off the pegs. KTMs sound smooth up high. Other GG are smooth like silk up high. Also, the bike is very tough to shift between gears, esp 1-2. I use Motul 10-30. Change frequently. No other oils have helped and better.

I took it back to the dealer (8hr in the truck; 2hr each way, 2 trips) to find that he did a nice job with welding on the kickstand, but did nothing to fix the real problem. The shop tech was very concerned and suggested that I not ride it until it is fixed. Owner shrugged it off saying it is the exhaust ratteling. If it gets real bad, you will know he says. Problem there is what if I am 50 mi into the mountain when that happens? I need a reliable ride. I took a lot of time out of my day to get him the bike. I explained very clearly that I am paying money and that I want my bike to run safely/smoothly. When I asked more directly about getting started on figuring out what is wrong, he looked at me like I have 3 heads. At that poing I figured that if he does not want to get paid for working on my bike, then I probably don't want him working on my bike.

So, here is the question: Is the tranny toast after having been used as a filter for the powervalve fragments? Is the powervalve toast after a latenight superfast install? Does it just need an oil change, tweek the jets abit (I am happy with the jetting now), throw on a new top end and call it good. Basically, at home I can redo a top end, with help. I am not going to start pulling apart the tranny (I think this is where the money is).

Decision Tree:
Fix easy stuff that I can do: jetting, top end, tighten bolts, change fluids
If that does not work I will take it to the local Honda shop. They won't have seen a 2t for a while, but the shop guy is good. He is a straight shooter too.
If that does not work, well then I am looking at a 300Race and keeping the lemon for parts. Anyone need parts? Anyone know how the lemon law applies to Motos?

thoughts, anyone...

[desertgasser300]

Sorry to hear about this problem with your Gasser. Honestly I don't think he got out all the bits. Or if he did, he did not assess the internals for damage that was likely done.

Is this the dealer you bought the bike from? Did you buy it new?

Now it's time for my $0.2 rant........

If I had a new bike that has less then a year on it and it did what you are describing and the service you are describing.....heads would roll! But, I guess that is why I do all my own work. I have nobody to blame for shody work!

These bike are sooo easy to work on. You could open it up yourself and repair it. They are like a big 3D puzzle and go back together real easy. Just take pics every step of the way. And if you get stuck everyone on this board jumps at the opportunity to help out!

Or if you wanna sell it to me real cheap I would take that to!!!!!!!

[husley]

Originally Posted by chadelliott

If I had a new bike that has less then a year on it and it did what you are describing and the service you are describing.....heads would roll!

Yep, me too

And if you do part it, I would take the wheels and rads.

[moto9]

I wouldn't ride it, the motor needs to come apart and throughly inspected.
That should have been done the first time.
Any time you try to take shortcuts in situations like yours they always come back to haunt ya.
Can the GG rep give you any assistance?
If not find a good GG mechanic

[Jakobi]

My 2010 has always been quite vibey through the pegs, and I always get a bit of chatter from the powervalve on decel. I've done 3000kms and its still running strong and same as it always did. I rode a mates 2011 which felt much less vibey and smoother than mine.

If all your issues started after the powervalve issue I would be digging further. Can you explain how or what exploded?? If its just the way your bike has always run then maybe thats it..

The exhaust pipe makes a whole lot of noise when the springs and o rings start to wear aswell.

Read it again. I would be at minimum dropping the oil and pulling the cylinder. Inspect the piston, rings and powervalve assembly. Check the oil for metal. From there you'll know if you need to dig deeper.

[GMP]

Problems like your original one are rare. When you say "power valve exploded" I assume you mean the governor assembly or drive gear? That would be a first reported here. Only a couple plastic pump drive gear failures have been reported over the years. Your secondary problem is likely from reassembly error. Progressively bad vibration is usually an indication of a bearing failure. I don't want to accuse anybody, but its not hard to screw up a good bearing with improper assembly technique. Either that or a damaged bearing was not detected and replaced in the teardown. Go where you have been last is the logical conclusion. In any case you deserve to have it fixed right. Properly built these are the most reliable, durable 2strokes out there today.

[MonsterTruck]

Thanks for the repiles. What I mean when I say power valve exploded is that there were large pieces of metal gearing, metal rod and bearings in the crank case. I know this should be a great bike, but it really has never been. It was sweet when new, for about a month. Since the power valve repair it has been reliable, but rough. Now it feels like it is about to die. It is super frustrating to have the dealer so far away, take it down there to find out that really nothing was done. Coming up with 8 hrs of free time during business hours is not easy for me especially when I get nothing out of it. I guess that I will tear it apart, take a look...and probably bring/ship it to a different dealer in a box of parts. Does anyone one have experience with the GG dealer in Moab? I stopped by the shop in Ginnison. Looked like a nice place, good guy. But that shop is about 4 hrs away.

In all seriousness, will gofasters let me buy parts for this 2011? I will shit a chicken if I have to go through my dealer for parts for a repair he would not do.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks for advice, and for letting me vent a bit.

[desertgasser300]

Originally Posted by MonsterTruck

In all seriousness, will gofasters let me buy parts for this 2011?

Gofasters will sell you any part you need!

[Moto7man]

Just my two cents. You could call RB Designs or another speciality Gas Gas race shop. It would be easy to pull your engine out and ship to one of these shops. That would save you a long drive and make sure that your engine is perfect when you reinstall it. I haven't used RB yet but all the posts seem positive.




Here is the address
RB Designs
12025 NW Thompson Rd.
Portland, Oregon 97229
Phone: (503) 645-2607 Monday ~ Friday 10:00 AM ~ 4:00 PM (PST)

[skid jackson]

Keep it local ... any competant MC mechanic should be able to handle a two stroke motor. Ask your riding buds who is a good local dirtbike wrench. Do you belong to a local dirtbike ridng club?? times like this that can come in handy!! Seriously ... its a 2t dirt bike motor ... not a rocket!! Bag the dealer .. he has already shown his true colors. I know a local Kawi rider who has his bikes worked on at a ktm dealer. The ktm dealer dosn't have a problem with that.

Your terminology is confusing ... The crank case is one part of the bike and the tranny is another ... I don't think you can get PV parts into the crank case
in the first place, at least now w/o blowing up the top end.
We need to figure out what exact parts/part of bike you are talking about??
In any case it sounds like a complete tear down is in order, imo a good local wrench should be able to handle it.